Scientometric approach of productivity in scholarly economics and business

Some scientometric studies attempt to explain the factors affecting a country’s scientific output, which is usually measured by proxy variables such as the number of articles and citations in internationally-renowned journals. This paper highlights the main drivers for scientific output in economics and business, namely, financing of education and research, population size, the number of scholarly journals and English as the official language. We use multiple OLS regressions and data provided by Web of Knowledge and the World Bank covering 56 nations. The study also highlights the relationship between scientific output and the efficiency in using the research funding. The rankings of sample countries show that there is a learning process at national level, the output being doubled by efficiency

Quantity versus quality in publication activity: knowledge production at the regional level

This study contributes to the ongoing debate regarding the balance between quality and quantity in research productivity and publication activity. Using empirical regional knowledge production functions, we establish a significant correlation between R&D spending and research output, specifically publication productivity, while controlling for patenting activity and socioeconomic factors. Our focus is on the dilemma of research quantity versus quality, which is analysed in the context of regional thematic specialization using spatial lags. When designing policies and making forecasts, it is important to consider the quality of research measured by established indicators. In this study, we examine the dual effect of research quality on publication activity. We identify two groups of quality factors: those related to the quality of journals and those related to the impact of publications. On average, these factors have different influences on quantitative measures. The quality of journals shows a negative relationship with quantity, indicating that as journal quality increases, the number of publications decreases. On the other hand, the impact of publications can be approximated by an inverse parabolic shape, with a positive decreasing slope within a common range of values. This duality in the relationship between quality factors and quantitative measures may explain some of the significant variations in conclusions found in the literature. We compare several models that explore factors influencing publication activity using a balanced panel dataset of Russian regions from 2009 to 2021. Additionally, we propose a novel approach using thematic scientometric parameters as a special type of proximity measure between regions in thematic space. Incorporating spatial spillovers in thematic space allows us to account for potential cross-sectional dependence in regional data

Europe's Top Research Universities in FP 6: Scope and Drivers of Participation

The present note characterises the participation of universities in the European Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (FP) with a substantive focus on the profile of participation of the top research universities on FP6. A commonly held belief is that top research universities prefer not to participate to the FP. Purported 'cumbersome' administrative procedures, 'low content of basic research' and availability of other, 'more attractive' sources of funding have been put forward as possible explanations. Another stereotype is that the principle of symmetric representation of member states' interests, often leads to charitable participations to organisations from less well-off countries. The present policy note takes a step back and puts such commonly held beliefs to the test. Collectively our findings lend support to the view that FP 6 has managed to involve excellent universities regardless of where they come from, maintaining overall neutrality despite political pressure for either "cohesion" or "juste retour". Europe's top research universities account for the lion's share of higher education participations to the FP6 and act as leading coordinators and key partners. Top research universities participate more in thematic priorities that are close to the knowledge frontier. NoE was the main instrument used by top research universities, in accordance with policy expectations. These findings need to be seen under the light of the study's limitations. First, the quantitative bibliometric criteria employed in the construction of our sample of top research universities may underestimate important research activities that do not usually register on standard bibliometric indicators. Second, the narrow definition of universities chosen may not be representative of the full range of academic research in Europe. Nevertheless, the fact that our sample compares favourably with well-known university rankings makes it likely that our results hold more broadly. We conclude identifying a number of areas worthy of further investigation.JRC.J.3-Knowledge for Growt

A bibliometric study of human–computer interaction research activity in the Nordic-Baltic Eight countries

Human–computer interaction (HCI) has become an important area for designers and developers worldwide, and research activities set in national cultural contexts addressing local challenges are often needed in industry and academia. This study explored HCI research in the Nordic-Baltic countries using bibliometric methods. The results show that the activity varies greatly across the region with activities dominated by Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, even when adjusting for differences in population size and GDP. Research output variations were larger for the top-tier conferences compared to entry-tier conferences and journals. Locally hosted conferences were associated with local increases in research activity. HCI research longevity appears to be an indicator of research maturity and quantity. HCI researchers typically collaborated either with colleagues within the same institution or with researchers from countries outside the Nordic-Baltic region such as US and the UK. There was less collaboration between national and Nordic-Baltic partners. Collaboration appeared especially prevalent for top-tier conference papers. Top-tier conference papers were also more frequently cited than regional-tier and entry-tier conferences, yet journal articles were cited the most. One implication of this study is that the HCI research activity gaps across the Nordic-Baltic countries should be narrowed by increasing the activity in countries with low research outputs. To achieve this, first-time authors could receive guidance through collaborations with experienced authors in the same institution or other labs around the world. More conferences could also be hosted locally. Furthermore, journals may be more effective than conferences if the goal is to accumulate citations.publishedVersio

Classification of Sustainable Activities: EU Taxonomy and Scientific Literature

none4openLucarelli, Caterina; Mazzoli, Camilla; Rancan, Michela; Severini, SabrinaLucarelli, Caterina; Mazzoli, Camilla; Rancan, Michela; Severini, Sabrin

Learning from Latin America's Experience: Europe's Failure in the "Lisbon Process"

The current paper investigates the cross-national relevance of Latin American "dependencia theory" for five dimensions of development (democracy and human rights, environment, human development and basic human needs satisfaction, gender justice, redistribution, growth and employment) on a global scale. It tries to confront the very basic pro-globalist assumptions of the "Lisbon process", the policy target of the European leaders since the EU's Lisbon Council meeting in March 2000 to make Europe the leading knowledge-based economy in the world with a "Latin American perspective". A realistic and politically useful analysis of the "Lisbon process" has to be a "Schumpeterian" approach. First, we analyze the "Lisbon performance" of the world economy by multivariate, quantitative means, looking into the possible contradictions that might exists between the dependent insertion into the global economy and other goals of the "Lisbon process". Dependency from the large, transnational corporations, as correctly predicted by Latin American social science of the 1960s and 1970s, emerges as one of the most serious development blockades, confronting Europe. Secondly, we analyze European regional performance since the 1990s in order to know whether growth and development in Europe spread evenly among the different regions of the continent. It emerges that dependency from the large transnational corporations is incompatible with a balanced, regional development. Finally, we discuss cross-national and historical lessons learned from the views of dependency and Schumpeterian perspectives for current policy-making in Europe, and opt for an industrial policy approach in the tradition of former EU-Commission President (1985-1995) Jacques Delors.Lisbon process, European Union, Latin America, Dependency theory

The influence of scientific research output of academics on economic growth in South Africa : an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) application

An increasing number of researchers have recently shown interest in the relationship between economic growth of a country and its research output, measured in scientometric indicators. The answer is not only of theoretical interest but it can also influence the specific policies aimed at the improvement of a country’s research performance. Our paper focuses on this relationship. We argue that research output is a manifestation of the improvement of human capital in the economy. We examine this relationship specifically in South Africa for the period 1980-2008. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method, we investigate the relationship between GDP and the comparative research performance of the country in relation to the rest of the world (the share of South Africa papers compared to the rest of the world). The relationship is confirmed for individual fields of sciences (biology and biochemistry, chemistry, material sciences, physics, psychiatry and psychology). The results of this study indicate that in South Africa for the period 1980-2008 the comparative performance of the research output can be considered as a factor affecting the economic growth of the country. Similarly, the results confirm the results of Vinker (2008) and Lee et al. (2001). In contrast, economic growth did not influence the research output of the country for the same period. Policy implications are also discussed.http://www.springerlink.com/content/0138-9130

Determinants of the international influence of a R&D organisation: a bibliometric approach

Traditionally, studies on the influence and impact of knowledge-producing organisations have been addressed by means of strict economic analysis, stressing their economic impact to a local, regional or national extent. In the present study, an alternative methodology is put forward in order to evaluate the international scientific impact and influence of a knowledge-producing and -diffusing institution. We introduce a new methodology, based on scientometric and bibliometric tools, which complement traditional assessments by considering the influence of a R&D institution when looking at the scientific production undertaken and the recognition of its relevance by its international peer community. Focusing on the most prolific scientific areas of INESC Porto, and resorting to published scientific work recorded in the Science Citation Index (SCI), we show that INESC Porto has enlarged its international scientific network. The logit estimations demonstrate that the wide geographical influence of INESC Porto scientific research is a result not of its international positioning in terms of co-authorships, but rather a result of the quality of its scientific output.Impact and influence assessment methods; R&D Institutions; Bibliometrics, Scientometrics; knowledge network; INESC Porto

Sustaining intergenerational well-being

This PhD thesis comprises two published papers and four working papers (which are already in the process of publication) on multi-dimensional, interrelated and complex subjects of sustainability and well-being. The thesis covers the history of sustainability and well-being as independent subjects and discusses their evolution into a unified subject matter, sustainability and well-being (SaW). We combined big data methods for discourse analysis with traditional literature review methods to compile an enormous amount of literature to summarise work previously done in this field. Moreover, we analysed 125 years of text data from New Zealand parliamentary debates and policy documents to demonstrate the semantic evolution of SaW in New Zealand. Whilst conceptually sustainability and well-being are interrelated, since well-being is the ultimate goal of all development endeavours and inter-generational sustainability is the constraint, most of the classic economic models have viewed them independently. Prior approaches have led to the development of rather incomplete and to some extent inappropriate policy guiding tools such as GDP. In contrast, contemporary well-being-oriented frameworks in economics have included components of both well-being and sustainability. However, they often take extreme and somewhat differently motivated positions in defining the scope of sustainability and differ significantly in allowing the operating space for development to deliver human well-being. This results in two conflicting notions of sustainability: i) strong sustainability and ii) weak sustainability. In this thesis, we have critically analysed both of these groups and have suggested a balanced and where appropriate nested approach, rather than either of these extreme positions. We have adopted a common measure of inter-generational weak sustainability Genuine Savings (GS) to conduct the empirical case study for long-term sustainability in New Zealand. It transpires that New Zealand is weakly sustainable, however, the increase in total wealth has not always matched population growth resulting in an intermittently occurring savings gap. Furthermore, we have empirically shown the predictive power of GS to predict changes in future subjective well-being in a global context over different time horizons